Ever After
by Shiori Asuka
Summary: When Akito orders Hatori to erase Tohru and Kyo’s memories and their love is forgotten, what will happen to the two teens? What secrets are being kept?
1. The End

Title: Ever After

Author: Shiori Asuka

Summary: When Akito orders Hatori to erase Tohru and Kyo's memories and their love is forgotten, what will happen to the two teens? What secrets are being kept?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters associated with the Fruits Basket anime/ manga. They belong to Natsuki Takaya.

Dedication: This is dedicated to Gypsy. Requiescat in pace.

Authors Note: This is sort of AU and I have no idea when in the timeline it happens. I have only read up to the end of Volume 11. I know some details of what happens, but bear with me please. Read on! XD

"No!" Tohru cried, tears streaming down her face. "I won't let you!"

Kyo closed his eyes in defeat. He knew that what was going to happen was inevitable. There was nothing that anyone could do. Akito had decided, and what Akito decided was final. No one could go against his orders. _Kyo_ couldn't go against his orders. Besides, he was tied up anyway.

Hatori was to erase their memories. Their time together. Their happiness. Their love. In a twisted, psychotic kind of way, Kyo could understand. Akito could never experience love, his life was simply too short for such things. And because he couldn't feel the cherished emotion, he was scared. Not of love itself, but of what would happen if someone were to fall in love.

_Quite simple really._ Kyo thought to himself bitterly. _He would lose another pawn to screw around with._

Just because he could understand didn't mean he was happy about it. In truth, he was furious. At Akito, at Hatori, at that damned rat, at Shigure… Unfortunately for Tohru and himself, he was tied up. And Tohru was as helpful as a drip of water in a drought; utterly useless. Kyo wasn't being mean, he was being honest. Tohru couldn't fight; she couldn't stop Akito at all.

But Kyo didn't blame her, no. Quite the contrary, he blamed himself.

_If only… If only I hadn't fallen in love with her, if only I hadn't been selfish! I _knew_ this would happen!_

Closing his eyes against the pain he felt in his heart, Kyo willed back the tears he knew were residing behind his eyelids, ready to escape the moment he opened his eyes. Why? Why did this have to happen? It's not like Tohru deserved it. She did so much for everybody else, she cared so much for everyone else and yet this was the thanks she received. To have her memory erased, the happiest time of her life taken away from her… Her love taken away from her.

_And I can't do a damn thing!_

A sob from someone ripped him from his thoughts violently as he snapped his head up to see who had made the noise.

Heart wrenching, he realised it was Tohru.

It had seemed that Akito had taken advantage of Kyo's absent-mindedness and had used the opportunity to grab Tohru without his making a fuss. Akito was holding her in place by yanking on her hair as hard as he possibly could. Kyo felt his hands clench into fists as he heard Tohru whimper. Whether from physical pain or emotional, he didn't know.

Tohru's heart felt like it was breaking. Pain lacerated her in every which way. It felt as though Akito was ripping out, not only her hair, but her heart as well.

Another hair was ripped out, and a sob escaped her as another crack appeared on her already weary heart. She couldn't take much more of this. Seeing Kyo tied up, watching him suffer over her, it was killing her. She couldn't stand to see the pain that had never before showed, so clearly on his face right now. Each time he winced, a tear escaped him, he whimpered, another crack appeared on her heart. She couldn't take much more of this.

_It's the only way…_

"A-Akito-san…" Heads turned as she spoke for the first time since said person had grabbed her. Eyebrow cocked and eyes filled with hatred, Akito gripped her hair harder in an attempt to stop her before she spoke any more.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Tohru steeled herself to continue.

"Akito-san… I… Onegai… (1) I know that there is nothing I can do to make up for the things I have done wrong,'" She could hear Kyo struggling against his gag as she said that, obviously wanting to argue. She could also see Yuki struggling to keep himself from running over to her. "But… If it is I who has done wrong… W-Why must you punish Kyo? If… If… Kyo is let go… A-and left alone… I'll consent… to having my memory erased… Just… Please… Leave Kyo alone…." Her voice almost cracked from built up emotion as she finished that sentence. What she said, she felt deep in her heart. She was in the wrong, so why did Kyo have to suffer?

Tohru could feel the shocked stares directed at her from the other Juunishi.

Akito sneered at Tohru; wanting nothing more than to kill her were she knelt.

"What do you know, you little tramp? You know _nothing_! Kyo isn't being punished for you're incompetence. No, he's being punished for an entirely different reason, the damned monster, so keep your _own_ damned mouth shut!" And to 'encourage' her to listen to him, he yanked her hair hard enough to make her cry out in pain.

"Shut up! It's _you_ who doesn't know anything!"

Everyone had been so busy with Tohru that they hadn't notice Kyo get through his bindings.

Panting heavily, with his wrists as red as rashes, he stood up and looked at Tohru with a pained expression. He turned back to Akito.

"You act as though you know everything, yet there is one thing that even _I_ know more about than you. And that's _love_." Hatori and Shigure winced as Kyo broached the forbidden subject.

"I was once like you, I thought I knew everything. That is, until I met Tohru. She showed me what it's like to have real love. Not fatherly love, not a pity kind of love… But real love. The kind that you would die for. The kind that you would bear all the pain in the world for, for just one second with that person, one chance to tell them how you feel." At this Kyo let a few tears escape.

He knew he'd failed. He knew it was too late. No matter what he did, it wouldn't make a difference. All he could was be there to catch her.

He could see Hatori out of the corner of his eye.

The last thing Tohru saw through her blurry eyes was Kyo collapse before she felt a light, warm feeling overtake her senses. A bright light filled her eyes and then darkness began to cover her vision. She could feel herself struggling to bring back the image of Kyo and Akito, horrifying as it was, anything was better than this darkness. She had heard enough about it to know that she was having her memories erased…

_I love you… I'm sorry…._

_Well? How was it? This was originally going to be a lot longer with more story and I even have a bit if the next part written but I lost all inspiration for this fic so I wanted opinions and decided to yours. R&R… PLEASE?_


	2. Encounters

Title: Ever After

Author: Shiori Asuka

Summary: When Akito orders Hatori to erase Tohru and Kyo's memories and their love is forgotten, what will happen to the two teens? What secrets are being kept?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters associated with the Fruits Basket anime/ manga. They belong to Natsuki Takaya.

Dedication:

Authors Note: I'm back! (Sorry for the delay, exams wait for NO ONE, not matter how much you beg, grovel and plead). Thanks for such great reviews for the first chapter! I wasn't sure whether to continue or not, but after that I decided that I would _have_ to continue! If only for those who reviewed!

_Oh, my head…_ Tohru blinked her eyes open and slowly sat up, tentatively bringing a hand to massage her aching head. The pain and tension was inside her head was the first thing she noticed when she awoke. Taking a moment to gather her bearings Tohru pondered where she was. She had no idea of where she was, what day it was, or anything of the sort. Tohru decided to start with the basics. The last thing she remembered was…

_Oh no! No, no, no, no, no!_

The tent, her mother's picture, that boy from her class…

Frantically searching for any clues as to what happened, and seeing her mother's picture safely situated beside her, she let herself relax a little and tried to remember the boy's name, the one from her class.

_Suki? No, it started with a Y. Yuki, I think._ Tohru thought to herself.

Looking around at the room she was currently resting in she found that she did not know the room, or where she was exactly. She was lying in a light pink _bed_, not futon, and the walls were a neutral colour of pale crème. There was a bedside cabinet next to her with what seemed to be a roughly scribbled note saying:

_Tohru-kun_

_Take your time and get a good rest._

_When you feel up to it, come and see me downstairs and we'll discuss what's going to happen now._

_Shigure._

Unsure as to whom this 'Shigure' was, Tohru decided to heed the advice written on the note made the executive decision to rest a little more. As she felt the edges of sleep creeping up to take her into unconsciousness, she couldn't help but feel that, although the room was unfamiliar, it had a comforting presence to it, like the soft lull of happy memories past…

_5 months later_

"Ah!' Tohru exclaimed upon seeing her two good friends in the rush of people flooding the campus grounds at the last minute before the semester started.

"Uo-chan, Hana-chan!" She cried out. Seemingly not able to hear her pleas, Tohru tried to push through the ever-growing crowd to reach them only to be swept away by the currents of college students brushing past with no regard to anyone along the way. Stumbling as a particularly large, burly looking guy pushed past, Tohru grabbed at air, trying to stop her untimely descent to the ground. A light 'oof' escaped from her mouth as she landed, but the fall lacked any real power as it was onto grass and the young man hadn't pushed her all that hard. Still, unbidden to her, tears sprang to her eyes and it was all she could do to let them fall. It was her _first day_ of college; she was getting pushed around, her friends didn't even know she was there and she had no one to help her. She was entitled to a few tears. A picture of her mother flashed into her head briefly, giving her strength.

_Be strong!_ She told herself, _Mum would want this for me! I have to just… bear with it and hope I make it out alive! Mum wouldn't give up so easily, she'd never give up! Yeah!_

With her resolve set, Tohru began to pick herself up when two hands wrapped them around her arm and helped her stand. Turning around to thank the person, she put a grateful smile on her face.

"Thank-you! I'm new, so I'm a little lost. Are you…" Tohru trailed off when she realised that the person was staring at her quite intensely, more so than you would to the average person you help up off the ground. She looked into the person's eyes, all the while trying to keep a straight face, and saw that, in the deep crimson, there was a brief flash of recognition in them.

_Why does he recognise me? Does he know me?_

"Um… Is there something on my face?" She asked quietly, averting her eyes from the man's intense stare. He seemed to struggle with himself for a few moments, but managed to put a smile on his face that matched her own forced smile.

"Nothing, unless you count beauty as something." Tohru blushed at his words but smiled all the same.

This time, her smile wasn't so forced.

"You flatter me, thank-you. But I can't say that I think I'm overly beautiful." She blushed more under his heated gaze. _Why won't he stop staring?!_

"And that's what makes you cute, you're modest." A new shade of red was discovered as Tohru turned an even darker shade of red.

"Ah, you know, that blush is rather cute as well." By this stage Tohru could be mistaken for cosplaying a tomato.

"Really, I'm not that great! I bet you, though, are very popular with girls, you're very good looking." She said, trying to get the attention off of her and it seemed to work, for he smiled and laughed a little. It must have been at some inside joke, because she couldn't find anything funny about what she said. Not unless…

"Only for one girl," was all the young man said to her.

_Only for one girl… Must be a lucky girl…_ Tohru laughed lightly at her own thoughts, and also a bit at the man in front of her. It was quite amusing to watch their light banter.

"Tohru!" A loud, brash voice interrupted her time with the youth standing before her, and she could tell that he wasn't pleased by the telltale signs of the clenching and unclenching of his fist.

"Uo-chan!" _It seems that they spotted me finally._ She thought, quite disappointed now that they did. _And I had just started to enjoy my time with him._ Trying to keep the disappointment off her face as her friends approached her, Tohru settled for;

"I'm so glad to see you! And Hana-chan too!"

Not quite true, but close enough.

"Orangey? You're here? You actually managed to get into a university?" Tohru tried to hide her shock.

"You know him Uo-chan?" Though Tohru could see the pain on said boys face, she painfully ignored it in favour of Uo.

"Ha ha Yankee, I'm not that dumb." More shock.

"You know Uo-chan?" She asked him. Tohru didn't know what to be more shocked at; Uo's "You _don't _know him?" or the fact that Uo knew him in the first place.

_Or should I say, remembers him…_

"Your waves, they are rather… chaotic. Is there something you are not telling us, Tohru-kun?" Hana's statement silenced all of Tohru's thoughts instantly. She had almost forgotten Hana's… _gift_.

"Ahaha… Hana-chan, what are you talking about?" She looked away from Hana to the crowd.

"Your waves are jumpy, indication nervousness. What are you nervous about Tohru-kun?" It seemed that their conversation had warranted the attention of Uo and the boy.

"Oh leave her alone Hana, she's obviously nervous about a new school, new people, etcetera etcetera." Smiling, he turned to her. "The names Kyo. Sohma Kyo. Nice to meet you." Forcing herself to smile, she replied with the customary,

"My name is Honda Tohru. Pleased to meet you as well, Kyo…san." It was having to put a 'san' at the end of his name, not the ridiculously polite introduction, not the fact that Uo could remember him, but the simple use of 'san' that broke Tohru's heart. At least until…

"Leave off the 'san'. It makes me feel uncomfortable." Shocked beyond belief, Tohru's head shot up and her gaze rested on those crimson eyes that held such a passion it almost scared her. Unadulterated joy filled her heart, making it swell. It was reflected in Kyo's eyes as well. Those words… they made her more happy than anything he could have said… almost. But as it was, that was all he could manage.

"Well Tohru," Uo said, obviously confused as hell, "I think we should show you your dorm room now." At the obvious sign of her friends uncomfort at being so out of the loop that she wasn't even following small talk between her and Kyo, Tohru decided that this could wait till another day. After all, what's a couple of days compared with six months of agony?

"I suppose I had better go then… Bye, it was nice to… meet you." Smiling as Uo led the way, Tohru left the smiling Kyo.

Looking back as they were about to round a corner, Tohru smiled a smile just for him.

He smiled back.

No one knew, no one suspected a thing. And it would stay that way.

Tohru had to wonder though, what had made Hatori lose his powers?

_Alrighty! Done and dusted! Maybe I'll revise it sometime… but for now, it's done. Not too happy with how it turned out, but hey, lack of beta'ing does not help. If anyone wants to do it for this story and revise it… feel free. Pm me first though, okay?_

_Please review!_

_Ja ne,_

_Shiori Asuka_


End file.
